Gen 3 Towing Thread

Are you talking about the R-pod or the Hummingbird trailer? If so I'd say anywhere from 16 to max 18K I would consider paying. As for a travel trailer such as an Lance you'll pay more. Trouble I see is when you get above into a larger and heavier trailer, other then paying more, is that even though our Tacco's on paper can pull higher weights you'll work the truck hard. Which mean you gas mileage and performance will totally suck. Just my two cents, I'm sure there are others who think otherwise, but if I was planning on pulling a larger trailer allot I'd be trading in my Tacco and looking for a different truck.

 

Not bad, i was surprised by how well it tow, don't expect a full size truck. On long hills, the speed will decrease for sure, I always use the ECT button, S mode on 4th gear and when i'm on flat ground i put in S5, but the majority of the time it's on S4.

But for me, i tow this load maybe 3-4 times a year, so the Tacoma is just perfect and it perform surprisingly well.

 

What is the LX570 rated at for towing?

 

7k, atleast the new ones.

 

It's a 2014 and rated at 6k, but the 2015 and 2016 models are rated at 7k. Pretty much the same truck. I know with the Lexus pulling the trailer with 2 of our horses it handles the towing with no problems. Total weight is about 6500 fully loaded.

 

What RPM are you guys turning at around 70-75mph in 4th gear?

I'm thinking of upgrading from my 1999 v6 to a 2017 and curious what to expect when towing at highway speeds in 4th gear.

 

Honestly I would never tow that much with the Tacoma. Just me but I have experience towing with the new 3.5, the old 4.0, and the 2.7 I have now. Thats a lot of weight

 

I don't normally tow anything but I do have a classic car so unfortunately it happens. Anyway this was the first time using my 16' TRD OR to tow anything. We rated the load at approximately 4000lbs. The trip was a flat 40 mile cruise. It didn't do too bad although I feel like I got a nice back massage. The whole inside of truck felt like it was shaking, from the steering wheel to the seat? Is that normal?

 

I have a home built travel trailer. I towed it with my gen 2 Tacoma trd off road many times during the trailer construction process. Just about the same time I was finally finishing the paint on the trailer I had a great opportunity to trade in my gen 2 for a 2016 gen 3. The small dealership I've used for years had a great deal for me, so I upgraded to a 2016 trd off road. The trailer weighs in at just over 2200 lbs. tongue weight is around 300 lbs. During the first couple towing trips with the new truck I feared I had made a MASSIVE mistake upgrading to a gen 3. Towing in 4th gear with ext turned on the mileage was around 11mpg, where my gen 2 got close to 15 in 4th. The transmission was continually shifting all over the place. So much so I finally just started shifting it manually. But my worst problem was porpoisin which I never had with my gen 2 even though it had nearl 100k on it. The tongue load was correct for the trailer (tongue load should always be 10-15% of trailer weight) but after about 100 miles I'd get bouncing and it would just get worse and worse. No sway. Porpoising / bouncing. Not a problem I expected. After one trip I'm not sure what made me reach under and grab one of the rear shocks, but when I did it was burning hot. Same issue on the other side. Reading on one of these forums it seemed like the bilstein 5100 shock was a potential solution. I called bilstein to get their recommendation and they sent me all the data for that shock. Far greater dampening ability, with same "softness". And far grater heat dissipation ability. So I ordered a set and installed them. Easy instal. Took about a half hour with truck on my lift. These are a far larger in diameter shock, made the factory bilsteins look like little toys. New shocks unloaded are about the same ride. Maybe a little stiffe. With the new shocks out in the road I headed with the tailer. I could feel the difference immediately. When I hit a bump before the truck would bounce continually for a while, so bad I was slowing down when I would see bumps. With the new shocks no fear of hitting bumps anymore. The shocks easily controlled the back of the truck with the load. So the bouncing problem was solved. I may change the fronts at some point. But for now the factory front shocks seem fine with towing my tailer. And obviously the fronts are far harder to change.

Sadly the transmission was still a massive problem. Could not maintain speed on the highway. Had to essentially shift it manually. Was ready to really go after Toyota for misadvertising the gen 3 capability with the towing package. My trailer is only ⅓ of what they state the truck can tow. Then I read about the transmission software update tsb. Took the new truck right in. Told the dealer I was having the delay from reverse to drive and shifting problems on the highway, that were far worse when towing. Service person said we don't normally do updates unless you are having problems, are you having delay from reverse and issues with not wanting to downshift going up hills and then shifting to a lower heat and continuall hunting? I said yes of course. They did the update and the computer took it, so mine had not had it yet. They also checked the transmission fluid the long way and actually found it was nearly full. So that was good. Hooked up the tailer and headed out on the road praying that I did not make a massive purchase mistake. And I was very relieved. Towing in 4th ect on on a hill now just tap the gas and it shifts down and stays down in 3rd until it's able to maintain speed in 4th. What amazes me is it is definitely handling hills better in 4th. The service tech I've known for years is suspicious there is far more to that software update than just transmission shift patterns and that they may be actually after the update be using the injectors differently, because they had to go back through EPA approval in order to release the update. It's towing beautifully now. Dealer suggested I limit it to 5th while towing. I know 5th is one of the overdrives but I tried it on the highway. Amazingly it towed beautifully with in the s5 selection. Dropped down when it needed to, but no hunting. On flat highway it maintains 65 in 5 at around 2000 rpm. In 4 65 is around 2700 rpm. I'm still not so sure about towing in 5. Seems like that could do transmission damage. In the hills I use 4th and let it drop down when it wants. On the flat I've tried 5 a couple more times and it works well. Since the tsb my towing mileage is running between 13 and 15, which is what I planned on when designing the tailer.

To wrap this up. I am now very pleased with the gen 3 towing ability for a small travel trailer. It's not a full size truck, so it's never going to tow like a full size truck. But it tows a small travel trailer very comfortably. I have about 1500 towing miles on it now. And I am seeing consistent results. I'm pleased...

Forgot to mention above I am using a Teconsha Prodigy P2 Controller. Have voltage set to 5. Have preload set to 1 so the brakes on the trailer come on a little sooner. Was easy to install. The plug is right under the dash, although they did change the connector on the 2016, so I had to buy a new pigtail.

 

Cool trailer. Glad everything is working now.

 

Towing about a 20FT trailer with a car on back. Empty truck did fine and barely felt it back there and drove like I would when I drive my buddies truck towing the trailer. Car loaded it still handled pretty well. Had some very steep downhill and ran in 2nd. Overall it performed how I'd expect a small truck to.

 

You're back

 

Towed my car to the track this weekend for the first towing experience in my Tacoma. It did fairly well on flat to rolling terrain. On the way there, I ran the car a bit more forward than I did on the way home, having more tongue weight on the way there. Heavier tongue weight made the truck get pushed around a bit but drove fine at reasonably speeds. Staying under 60mph was best so the cruise was set at 55 and it did perfect. On the way home, I had the car loaded about 2 inches back, lowering tongue weight just a bit. Truck did not get pushed around by the trailer but it was a little bouncy on some of the rougher roads. Towing the trailer back to my friend I borrowed it from, unloaded, the truck was very bouncy, enough so my kids were complaining in the back.

Overall, the truck will do exactly what I need it to do which is serve as a daily driver, weekend camping vehicle and occasional tow rig.

 

Neat! Always like hearing a positive experience. Just IMHO you might have even better towing if you can use a weight distribution/anti-sway bar. Maybe others here will affirm, discount, or have a better solution?

 

Do you guys tow with the ect button on or do y'all keep it off?

 

When I was towing a car I didn't use the button. And trailer unloaded it pulled just fine even though its like a 20 foot trailer double axle. Not a light trailer. Now if you have a heavy load and have lots of uphill why not? I honestly don't notice much difference at all with ect button. Seems it just shifts later.

 

I honestly hate driving without pushing the ect button! its like driving a truck with no balls... but i could see when hauling a trailer how it might strain the motor

 

Any you folks wire your own trailer lights? If so, what kit did you get and where from? Any unexpected issues? The hitch went on pretty easy with just a little mod to one of the holes, glad I did it myself, just wondering about the lights.

 

No doubt it would have been a little better with a weight distribution hitch. I just ran out of time to get one and had enough money in the weekend already so I figured I'd just drive slower to create the safety I wanted. I also wanted to see what the truck did without one and I'm happy with it. I'll likely buy a small enclosed trailer for the car at some point, which will be lighter than the open float I borrowed for this trip. I used to own an off-road racing team and had a 40' enclosed I towed with a hot rodded Dodge 1-ton. This truck doesn't tow anything like that but it still gets the job done.

As for towing in "ETC", I did. I kept the truck in "S" mode and had the "ETC" on to keep the shift points higher, making sure it doesn't create unnecessary heat in the transmission. Automatic transmissions don't tend to like low rpm and heavy load as they slip due to low pressure, in my experience.

 

I just drove across the country (VT to WA) fully fully loaded. I'm guessing there was approx 400 lb of stuff in the bed (storage system, clothes, my entire office & EE lab), towing a U-Haul trailer with a '71 Datsun 510 on it (4500 lbs?), two kayaks on top, and a bike on the Datsun. I have airbags in the back to keep it level, stayed off the cruise, and took it easy at 60-ish the entire way out. Honestly, I'm pretty impressed with how everything handled. I'm very glad I installed the bags before heading out.